Saudi Arabian court to cut man’s spinal cord as punishment

As punishment or his crime, a Saudi Arabian court has decided that his spinal cord be cut so he can be left paralysed like his victim.

24-year-old Ali al-Khawahir who has already spent 10 years in jail is to have his spinal cord cut and left paralysed as punishment for stabbing and paralysing a childhood friend when he was just 14.

Unless he can raise £177,000 “blood money,” he would have to undergo the surgery according to the sharia law court but the verdict sparked an outrage from Amnesty International calling it a form of torture and against medical ethics.

Ann Harrison from Amnesty International said paralysing a person as punishment for a crime would be torture.

“It is time the authorities in Saudi Arabia start respecting their international legal obligations and remove these terrible punishments from the law,” she said.

The Foreign Office has also called for the sentence to be raised. “We urge the Saudi Arabian authorities not to carry out this grotesque punishment.

“Such practices are prohibited under international law and have no place in any society,” a Foreign Office spokesman said.